I’ve spent nearly a week in the Napa Valley working on the Bouchon Bakery Cookbook. This will be the fifth book in a series led by Thomas Keller that began with The French Laundry Cookbook which is one of the best chef-restaurant cookbooks ever (do we need full dislosure here?). Forget the words I write—these books are truly fine and costly productions, and I think it’s important for people to know what goes into books of this magnitude, because so often people don’t know. A team of people, from the many at Artisan, an imprint of Workman Publishing, who make beautiful books, to the commis at the restaurants who scale out the mise en place for the recipes for the chefs, and all those in between, including myself. In 1997, I flew out here to Read On »

Last week I asked what makes a great app? Andrew Schloss, a cook, teacher and author of numerous books, offers his answer below. Andrew has created a truly innovative cooking app, called Cookulus. His plans are to create a series of interactive recipes that can be used by Cookulus but for now, he and his collaborators have started smart and small, applying the Cookulus algorithm to the chocolate chip cookie. I recommend this app even if you don’t actually bake a cookie from it, just for the fascination of watching the recipe adjust itself as you slide your fingers along the bars (I bought it for $2.99, but he and his collaborator, Max Minkoff, reduced the price to a ridiculous $.99; they also offer a “lite” version for free to give you a better sense Read On »